Friday, May 8, 2009

The Professor - Ch. 45.5

She secretly courted a new man. A man richer than her own family. A man unrelated to the Weaver family. A man that could free her from the prison she allowed herself to be put in.

As expected, Megan’s actions devastated Baron. Earl was devastated, too, although he kept a lid on his feelings for obvious reasons. Baron became practically a hermit. Earl began to cheat on his wife even more, having been robbed of the woman he really loved.

Although Megan’s new husband was old enough to be her grandfather and was very sickly, she didn’t mind. Those very reasons had much to do with why she’d chosen Scottsdale in the first place. It would definitely explain why she suddenly wanted to volunteer more hours with the country club’s senior citizens program so close to her intended nuptials with Baron.

Megan figured that she could play the doting wife for at least five years (which was the amount of time the doctors had given Scottsdale to live), get her husband to change his will, and then soon after he died, find Baron and marry him. It never crossed her mind that Baron would eventually move on with his life. And so fast.

Megan erroneously thought that she was that indispensable to him. What other woman would cater so much to his needs like she had? She even learned Spanish and how to dance like Shakira just to please Baron.

Megan also enrolled in college for him. However, she secretly paid others to do her homework and to let her copy off their tests, which were the same things she did in high school.

Unlike high school, Megan never did finish that business degree. The college she attended was strict about their exit exams. Each student had to schedule an appointment to take his/her exam since it was not given in group sessions. A watchful moderator was present at all times.

As a result of those procedures, Megan failed all of her exams. The fact that she failed them by a mile proved that she was unworthy of any college degree. It also caused her professors to wonder if she had ever learned a thing in their classes or had indeed cheated as they suspected all along.

Baron lovingly offered to help Megan study for the retests, but she was too embarrassed to let him. She didn’t want him to know just how dumb she was. She definitely didn’t want him to make the right connection between her extremely high grades and excessively low test scores.

Instead Megan claimed that she was just a poor test-taker and would probably always be the kind of person that got overly anxious during tests. Then she used those claims as excuses to give up trying to finish her degree altogether.

Though Baron continued to try to motivate Megan to complete her college degree, he eventually let it go. He eventually let her go, too. Especially after she broke his heart.

For a long time, Megan hoped that Baron would get over his broken heart and pursue her. Yet when she recalled how principled he was, she should have known better than to expect that.

Baron would never pursue a married woman, no matter how much he loved her. He respected the sanctity of marriage unlike most of his older brothers. That had been one of the reasons she loved him so much.

As fate would have it, Megan wasn’t married for long. Scottsdale died within ten months of their marriage, leaving her a very wealthy woman since he had no other family surviving him. Now she was back in town to reclaim what she’d lost – Baron.

Earl couldn’t stop her either. Not after Megan just used a large portion of her newfound wealth to rescue him and Meadow out of the enormous debt they’d accumulated over the years trying to live the high life. Debt that Earl was too ashamed to ask his family for assistance with because it would confirm what they all suspected anyway – that he was terrible with money. That his wife wasn’t much better with it either.

Incidentally, Megan found out about Earl and Meadow’s financial problems from her uncle. She happened to call Uncle Ford on a day when he was very upset with Meadow.

During that call Uncle Ford ranted about how he was tired of seeing his money being poured down the drain by his spoiled daughter and irresponsible son-in-law. About how they weren’t even grateful for the help they received from him thus far. About how cowardice he deemed Earl to be because he wouldn’t even ask for the money himself, but rather continued to send Meadow to ask for it instead. About how if it wasn’t for his grandchildren, the promise Uncle Ford had made to his wife to look after their daughter, and the Griswold family’s reputation in the community, he would have cut Earl and Meadow off a long time ago.

When Megan decided to return to Bel Air, she called Earl with a proposition. In exchange for helping him out of his financial hole, she would gain his eternal silence about their affair and his assistance in helping her get Baron back.

Earl immediately balked at that proposition. Yes, he wanted and needed Megan’s financial support. But he did not want to help her reconcile with his brother under any circumstances. Not when he still wanted her for himself.

That’s when Megan decided to play hard ball.

She mocked Earl about his inability to take care of his wife in the manner Meadow had been accustomed to. She told him about how cowardly his father-in-law deemed him to be behind his back. About how shameful it would be to him if others, especially his brothers, were to find out just how broke he was.

Then Megan painted a rosier picture for Earl. She told him how responsible and manly he would now appear in his wife, father-in-law, and brothers’ eyes if he came up with alternative means to take care of his responsibilities. She promised him that no one would ever have to know that she was his private financial backer. Not even Meadow.

Megan was waiting for Earl’s response to her proposition even now. It had already been a full week since she made that offer. He’d needed that much time to think about it.

Megan hoped that the large deposit she wired to a secret account that she’d set up for Earl showed just how serious she was about this deal. More importantly, she hoped it served to finally sway him over to her side.

As if she’d somehow conjured him up, Earl suddenly called Megan on her cell phone.